1887 Bradley Map of Indiana

Description: This is a fine example of William M. Bradley's 1887 map of Indiana. It covers the entire state in considerable detail. Parts of neighboring Illinois, Ohio and Michigan are also depicted. The map also delineates survey grids referencing the work of the U.S. Land Survey. Various towns, cities, rivers, railroads, roads, American Indian reservations and settlements, and an assortment of additional topographical details are noted. Map is color coded according to regional and political boundaries with elevation rendered by hachure. Copyrighted 1887 by Wm. M. Bradley & Bro., for issue as plate no. 68 in the 1887 edition of Mitchell's New General Atlas.

Date:
1887 (dated)

Source:
Huber, John. Mitchell's New General Atlas, containing Maps of the Various Countries of the World, Plans of Cities, Etc., Embraced in Ninty-Three Quarto Maps, forming a series of One Hundred and Forty-seven Map and Plans, together with Valuable Statistical Tables., 1887

References:
Rumsey 0594.032.

Cartographer:
Bradley, Garretson & Co. (fl. c. 1880 - 1900) were prominent cartographic publishers active in the later part of the 19th century. Bradley acquired Samuel Augustus Mitchell Junior's atlas plates in the late 1880s which he used to publish his own version of Mitchell's atlas. The firm had offices both in Philadelphia, at 66 North Fourth Street, and in Brantford, Ontario. Click here for a list of rare maps from Bradley, Garretson & Co.

Cartographer:
Samuel Augustus Mitchell (March 20, 1792 - December 20, 1868) Senior began his map publishing career in the early 1830s. Having worked as a school teacher, Mitchell was frustrated with the low quality and inaccuracy of school texts of the period. His first maps were an attempt to rectify this problem. In the next 20 years Mitchell would become the most prominent American map publisher of the mid-19th century. Mitchell worked with prominent engravers J. H. Young, H. S. Tanner, and H. N. Burroughs before attaining the full copyright on his maps in 1847. In 1849 Mitchell teamed up with printer Cowperthwait & Company to produce the Mitchell's Universal Atlas and the Mitchell's General Atlas. In the late 1850s most of the Mitchell copyrights were bought by Desilver and Co. who continued to publish his maps, many with modified borders and color schemes, until Mitchell's son, Samuel Augustus Mitchell Junior, entered the picture. S.A. Mitchell Jr. purchased most of the copyrights back from Desilver and, from 1860 on, published his own New General Atlas. The younger Mitchell became as prominent as his father and published atlases well into the late 1880s when most of the copyrights were again sold and the Mitchell firm closed its doors for the final time. Click here for a list of rare maps from Samuel Augustus Mitchell.